New Desktop Computer, v.July2013 (Read 210 times)

Mr PH --- with how inexpensive the standard old boring desktops from the mainline (dell, hp, etc) are today, grabbing one of those, plugging it in, install your work VPN and just go has got to be attractive. No hours of time stuffing the components you have into a case, installing the OS, adding this, downloading that. A quick glance at the Dell Factory Store may change your mind about building your own.

I've done my best to live the right way. I get up every morning and go to work each day. (for now)

Mr PH --- with how inexpensive the standard old boring desktops from the mainline (dell, hp, etc) are today, grabbing one of those, plugging it in, install your work VPN and just go has got to be attractive. No hours of time stuffing the components you have into a case, installing the OS, adding this, downloading that. A quick glance at the Dell Factory Store may change your mind about building your own.

True but I already paid for the Windows license and do not think those machines are configured without the OS so I would have to eat that cost. I also bought a SSD dso any HD included with a bundled machine would essentially be throw away (although I do have a laptop that I could possible put it into). Plus I think that I would rather tinker with the hardware than spend time uninstalling the crap trial software that they put on those machines.

Mr PH --- with how inexpensive the standard old boring desktops from the mainline (dell, hp, etc) are today, grabbing one of those, plugging it in, install your work VPN and just go has got to be attractive. No hours of time stuffing the components you have into a case, installing the OS, adding this, downloading that. A quick glance at the Dell Factory Store may change your mind about building your own.

I like to build my own desktops, and I have a different perspective on the value:

- OEMs will skimp on quality where they're able to do so. That's especially true of the power supply and motherboard. These systems can also be more difficult to upgrade, which limits their effective life.

- OEMs will pack a new system with crapware: Unwanted, intrusive, annoying applications that are put there because companies pay the OEMs tons of money to do so. Identifying, disabling and/or removing this stuff can takes time and effort.

- I like quiet PCs, both in my office and especially my HTPC. A few smart component choices allows me to build a very quiet system.

I can build a system at a reasonable price that gives me exactly what I need, and I can get it running in a few hours. I can also pick components that are easy to upgrade and modern enough to extend to life of my system by a couple of years.

This is spot on. every bullet item. I just did a major upgrade to my desktop with new motherboard, CPU, an SSD and memory and it cost me less than buying a new POS from Dell and I have exactly what I want. Oh I forgot that I also later bought a new case for $45 at Fry's that supports USB3.0 on the front panel. I subscribe to, and welcome, the 'garbage' emails from the likes of Fry's, Amazon, Newegg and MicroCenter as I am always lurking for good deals on components! I donated my old components to a friend who builds PCs in his spare time to give to people that can't afford machines.

Finn, you can have more than one hard drive. The more the merrier - I have a 120GB SSD for operating system and temp storage of large data files that I'm using at the time, and two 1TB spinning drives. I use one for system images and don't even bother with anti-virus progams other than Security Essentials. The other is all of my data.

Also, your laptop will benefit greatly from an SSD. Over the holiday sales periods I bought two 120GB SSDs for $79 and put one in the desktop and the other in an older Dell laptop. The laptop has been transformed from a dog to a very decent machine now. Very happy.

I like to build my own desktops, and I have a different perspective on the value:

- OEMs will skimp on quality where they're able to do so. That's especially true of the power supply and motherboard. These systems can also be more difficult to upgrade, which limits their effective life.

- OEMs will pack a new system with crapware: Unwanted, intrusive, annoying applications that are put there because companies pay the OEMs tons of money to do so. Identifying, disabling and/or removing this stuff can takes time and effort.

- I like quiet PCs, both in my office and especially my HTPC. A few smart component choices allows me to build a very quiet system.

I can build a system at a reasonable price that gives me exactly what I need, and I can get it running in a few hours. I can also pick components that are easy to upgrade and modern enough to extend to life of my system by a couple of years.

Finn, you can have more than one hard drive. The more the merrier - I have a 120GB SSD for operating system and temp storage of large data files that I'm using at the time, and two 1TB spinning drives. I use one for system images and don't even bother with anti-virus progams other than Security Essentials. The other is all of my data.

Also, your laptop will benefit greatly from an SSD. Over the holiday sales periods I bought two 120GB SSDs for $79 and put one in the desktop and the other in an older Dell laptop. The laptop has been transformed from a dog to a very decent machine now. Very happy.

I already have a decent sized external drive that I back stuff up to. Honestly my storage requirements are relatively small and I have enough redundancy. That Amazon config is very close to what I need.

I hear you on the SSD for my laptop. Been thinking of doing that for a while.

Mr PH --- with how inexpensive the standard old boring desktops from the mainline (dell, hp, etc) are today, grabbing one of those, plugging it in, install your work VPN and just go has got to be attractive. No hours of time stuffing the components you have into a case, installing the OS, adding this, downloading that. A quick glance at the Dell Factory Store may change your mind about building your own.

Some of us consider that to be a well-spent recreational past-time . . .

Well you build it yourselves geeks have another convert. I purchased this configuration (bumped the RAM up from 4 to 8 GB). I had it together and installed the OS in a short amount of time. This will definitely fulfill my needs.

For Windows folks, I have heard a lot of whining about Windows 8. I installed 8.1, and with a little Google searching I had it acting very similar to Window 7 (without installing any freeware, either). It is really not bad. The only thing that pisses me off is that MS pretty much imbedded Adobe Flash Player for IE into the OS. I cannot uninstall it cleanly (Google search offers registry hacks, eff that). I disabled the plugin but would like the option of uninstalling it since I don't want anything installed that I do not use (I use Firefox exclusively).